The socialist origins of the Green Revolution: Pandurang Khankhoje and domestic ‘technical assistance’
2020; Routledge; Volume: 36; Issue: 3-4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/07341512.2020.1862989
ISSN1477-2620
Autores Tópico(s)Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development
ResumoOrigin narratives of the Green Revolution have been periodized to influence who is seen as an expert and memorialized as such. This article pushes us to reframe technical assistance to include in country agricultural aid activities needed for many foreign assistance initiatives to succeed. Many agricultural-based technical assistance projects of the twentieth century trace their origins to the emergence of a Rockefeller Foundation-led Green Revolution. This essay argues that in Mexico the arrival of so-called foreign technical assistance was not new but rather a continuation of socialist-based agricultural initiatives based on transforming rural life thru science. In addition to missing the influence of pivotal national institutions and scientists, key transnational, pre-exisiting relationships are often overlooked. This essay illustrates the importance of pushing back the time-line by using the case of Pandurang Khankhoje, an Indian agronomist working in Mexico before the arrival of Norman Borlaug and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Referência(s)